Piggott: Vincent was the greatest
Legendary jockey Lester Piggott last night led the tributes to the training genius of Vincent O’Brien, who died on Monday morning at the age of 92.
O’Brien secured 16 English and 27 Irish Classic victories, 25 Royal Ascot wins and 23 Cheltenham Festival successes during an amazing career which spanned 51 years.
He retired from training in October 1994.
O’Brien is survived by wife Jacqueline and five children including David, who trained the Derby winner Secreto and now lives in Perth, and Charles, who trains in Ireland.
His funeral will take place at noon on Thursday at St Conleth’s Church, Newbridge, Co Kildare.
Piggott partnered many of the champions housed at Ballydoyle in the glory days of the late 1960s and 1970s.
These included Derby winners Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto and The Minstrel, and he was coaxed out of retirement by O’Brien to conjure a magical triumph out of Royal Academy in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“Vincent’s attention to detail was to be seen everywhere at Ballydoyle, and he wanted to operate at the level where he could get to know each individual animal as closely as was humanly possible,” said Piggott.
“Everything he did was geared to keeping his horses happy and relaxed at home so that they would perform to their full potential on the racecourse, and the results speak for themselves.
“There’s really no argument. Vincent was the greatest.”
John Reid provided O’Brien with one of his final Group One winners before his retirement on Royal Academy in the July Cup at Newmarket in 1990.
“He did it in National Hunt racing and he did it in Flat racing – he was a true legend,” said Reid.
“I rode for him for two seasons. He did not have the quality of horse at that stage of his career but he still had the magic, and the ability to get a horse spot on for the big day.
“The best he had then was Royal Academy. Sadly I had broken my collarbone and couldn’t ride him in the Breeders’ Cup, but it was some story when Lester Piggott rode the winner instead.”
Long-time friend Peter O’Sullevan believes O’Brien had no equal as a trainer of racehorses.
“His achievements were absolutely unparalleled in my view, not just for a 20th Century training career but of all-time,” said the ‘Voice of Racing’.
“To win three successive Grand Nationals and four Gold Cups, three Champion Hurdles and to monopolise the Gloucestershire Hurdle (now Supreme Novices’) so much. Then he translated that on the Flat, amazing.
“The great thing about him was that he was so meticulous and so dedicated. He was a real stickler for detail and for the right details. He was a master of his craft.”
O’Brien was simply the best, according to Channel 4 Racing pundit John McCririck.
“He was the greatest trainer of all time, beyond dispute,” he said.
“He didn’t inherit it or was put in a position by wealthy patrons. It was by sheer skill, knowledge of horses and a fantastic feel and flair for a horse.
“In a poll in the Racing Post in 2003 to find the greatest, I voted for Vincent and so did the majority of the public. He was the most influential figure in racing ever.”
The current incumbent of Ballydoyle is Aidan O’Brien, a man himself setting remarkable training feats and responsible for six of the 13 runners left in Saturday’s Investec Derby at Epsom.
He said: “It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Dr Vincent O’Brien.
“As for so many people in racing, he was my hero growing up. For Anne Marie (wife) and me to come to Ballydoyle, to the training facility he established, was an extraordinary privilege.
“Dr O’Brien was tireless in improving the yards and gallops and we enjoy the benefits of his half-century of hard work and dedication today.
“We would never have been able to achieve our successes without the facility and gallops he built.
“There is nothing that compares to it anywhere in the world.
“I feel the sense of history every morning when I walk into the yard that had horses such as Nijinsky, Sir Ivor to Sadler’s Wells.
“His dedication to the sport of racing and to the highest standards knew no bounds.
“It is humbling to follow in his footsteps.”
John Gosden worked for O’Brien from 1976 to 1977.
The Newmarket trainer said: “We don’t use the word lightly when we say he is one of the legends of racing. Grand Nationals, Cheltenham Gold Cups, Champion Hurdles, the Derby, the Guineas, he did it all.
“I was lucky enough to be his assistant during a golden era. He opened up the world of international racing as well as bloodstock, through the 35 years of the Northern Dancer line. We will see the fruits of his labour in the Derby on Saturday.”
